Twins blank Mariners behind Deduno

SEATTLE — Nothing came easily for Seattle Mariners starter Aaron Harang on Saturday. Even when he was holding the Minnesota Twins hitless over the first three innings, his pitch count kept steadily rising. By the time he finished the fifth, allowing one run on three hits, he’d already thrown 107 …

Even when he was holding the Minnesota Twins hitless over the first three innings, his pitch count kept steadily rising. By the time he finished the fifth, allowing one run on three hits, he’d already thrown 107 pitches.

The Twins added a few more runs, including homers by Brian Dozier and Justin Morneau, and the Mariners couldn’t muster any in losing 4-0.

“I happened to glance up at one point and saw how many pitches — I was kind of taken aback by how many pitches I had thrown,” Harang said. “I felt really good. I felt I was making some good pitches, but it definitely was a battle today. There was a lot of foul balls and a lot of close pitches that missed.”

Brad Miller and Kyle Seager each had two hits for Seattle, which has lost three of four.

Harang (5-9) struck out five and walked two in five innings, the ninth time in 17 starts this season he has gone five innings or less.

Seattle’s offense had an even harder time against Twins starter Samuel Deduno (7-4), who allowed three hits, walked three and tied his season high with six strikeouts. He has thrown seven innings in each of his last three starts, winning all three.

“You can see their hitters, there were balls they were swinging and then looking back trying to see where the ball went, and that tells you his ball’s really moving,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said.

It was the fifth shutout of the season for Minnesota, which has won four of its last six games and is 6-3 since the All Star break.

It was the second loss in a row for Seattle. On Friday, the Twins scored in the ninth inning to tie the game and then went on to win 3-2 in 13 innings.

“We’ve had two hard-fought games,” Miller said. “Yesterday both teams were battling and the same today. It was a pitchers’ duel early. I thought we fought and that’s the biggest thing.”